Optimize the Metric That Matters: Impact

You are more likely to summit Mount Everest than click a banner ad. Your chances of viewing an ad targeted to you? Flip a coin. Ad viewability is a mere 48%. The odds of an impression leading to a statistically significant uptick in purchase intent? 1 in 100. The time-tested “Deliver my ads to the right people, in the right place, at the right time, with the right message” simply does not work–and it’s only getting worse.

Your chances of viewing an ad targeted to you? Flip a coin. Ad viewability is a mere 48%.2

The odds of an impression leading to a statistically significant uptick in purchase intent? 1 in 100.3

The time-tested “Deliver my ads to the right people, in the right place, at the right time, with the right message” simply does not work–and it’s only getting worse. The odds of digital advertising success are against us.

Media planners, the folks tasked with executing these goals, are stuck in a vice dealing with increasing industry challenges and insufficient measurement tools. The structural challenges of the industry are making it harder to drive value from each incremental impression served and we are not giving media planners ample time, training, or tools to effectively do their jobs.

Advertisers and their partners need to set higher standards and stop accepting the waste in the system. What does this all mean for the marketer? How can we get the most out of our digital marketing budget?

A great place to start is to optimize campaigns against the metric that matters: impact. Most media planners today optimize campaigns based on reach: how many people did my message get in front of and at what frequency? These reach metrics are really only a means to an end. Yes they are important, but they are simplistic indicators of a campaign’s ultimate impact and only one piece of the equation. Reach unto itself is not impact!

What if there was a new currency? What if marketers could optimize campaigns mid-flight based on which impressions were driving the largest impact?

Branding campaigns: impact can be measured by attitudinal metrics such as lift in purchase intent or favorability.

Direct response campaigns: impact can be measured by key behavioral metrics like visiting the brand site or conducting a search for the product.

Both attitudinal and behavioral measures are closely correlated with the ultimate success measure–sales.

In recent years Compete, along with sister company Dynamic Logic, got together with DoubleVerify to address this industry challenge. We were in a unique position, collectively possessing complementary data assets and expertise that when combined, could address this industry challenge in a distinct way. We’re excited to introduce brands, agencies, and publishers to a solution called Advance.

Advance integrates behavioral data from Compete, attitudinal measures from Dynamic Logic, and viewability metrics from DoubleVerify to provide the most holistic campaign measurement and optimization platform in the market. Most importantly, Advance enables a marketer to optimize a campaign on what matters–impact.

About Dan Pflock:Dan Pflock is a Product Manager at Compete where he is focused on the support, strategy, and development of new and existing media measurement products. Before Dan joined Compete he attended Bentley University and spent six years working in marketing and product management roles at Boston area start ups. Follow Dan on Twitter @danpflock or connect with him on LinkedIn or Google+